Netflix continues to be on its true-crime roll with The Good Nurse starring Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, which is based on the true story of Charles Cullen, a nurse whose victims were the patients that he was treating.
The movie, directed by Tobias Lindholm and written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns, is based on the book The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness and Murder by Charles Graeber. In the movie, Chastain plays Amy Loughren, a dedicated nurse but struggling single mom who also is dealing with a heart condition. When a new nurse, Charlie (Eddie Redmayne), joins the staff, the two instantly hit it off and support each other. However, when patients begin to die unexpectedly and the police start to investigate, Amy becomes suspicious that her friend may be involved.
You can watch The Good Nurse on Netflix right now, which has earned an 80% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. If you already have watched it, then you may be asking yourself how much of the movie is what really happened and what was made up for this retelling?
We’re here to help you separate the fact vs fiction on some of the biggest questions surrounding The Good Nurse. Let’s investigate. (SPOILER ALERT if you have not seen The Good Nurse).
How did Charles Cullen get caught?
In the movie, Amy begins to suspect that Charlie is responsible for these deaths after seeing that insulin and digoxin were somehow in the patients' systems at the time of death and hearing about his behavior in other hospitals. She decides to work with the police undercover to get the evidence and hopefully a confession out of Charlie. At first she is not successful in getting a confession, but the police pick him up for questioning before he can begin work at another hospital. With only 48 hours to elicit a confession, Amy is brought in and helps get Charlie to admit to the murders.
The real Amy Loughren working with police was key in bringing Charles Cullen to justice, as she detailed in a recent interview with WFMZ. "Being a whistleblower is not easy," she said. "Doing the right thing, as hard as it is, it’s worth it every single time." Loughren also says she remains in contact with the detectives who worked on Cullen’s case, Danny Baldwin and Tim Braun, praising their efforts to catch Cullen.
However, where The Good Nurse stretches the truth is in that climatic confession between Amy and Charlie. According to Loughren, she did visit Cullen in prison but, "He found out that I was a confidential informant and all connections stopped."
Another creative liberty that the movie takes is the victim that ultimately leads to Cullen’s arrest. In the movie, it is the death of Anna Martinez that first raises the suspicion of police and then another patient, Kelly Anderson, that helps prove Charlie guilty. However, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, it was the death of Rev. Florian J. Gall in 2003 that resulted in Cullen’s arrest and eventual conviction.
How many hospitals did Charles Cullen work at?
When The Good Nurse begins, Charlie is hired to work at Parkland Hospital, touted as an experienced nurse. It is eventually revealed that he has worked at nine hospitals prior to Parkland over the course of his career, making Parkland his 10th different hospital.
The number of hospitals that Cullen worked out is accurate, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, though in many cases the names of the hospitals have been changed in the movie. For instance, the hospital that Loughren and Cullen worked at together was Sommerset Medical Center, not Parkland.
A reason for this may be because the movie does take a critical look at the systems that were in place that allowed Cullen to continue to find work despite rumors surrounding his conduct, troubled personal history and previous firings from hospitals, as reported in The New York Times. In the aftermath, both New Jersey and Pennsylvania created new laws to improve background checks for hospital employees.
How many people did Charles Cullen kill?
At the end of The Good Nurse, text reads that, "To avoid the death sentence, Charles Cullen pled guilty to the murder of 29 people. The real number of victims is believed to be as many as 400." Is that an accurate number for Charles Cullen’s victims?
That text is pretty accurate, as Cullen did ultimately agree to a plea deal where he identified 29 victims in order to avoid the death penalty, though The New York Times reported that Cullen had admitted to killing 30 to 40 patients. The claim that he may have killed as many as 400 patients is based on estimates, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Where is Charles Cullen now?
Also in the text at the end of The Good Nurse, it says that "Charlie Cullen is currently serving 18 consecutive life sentences in New Jersey State Prison and will not be eligible for parole until 2403."
This is also accurate. As we mentioned above, Cullen pled guilty to avoid the death penalty, but his final sentencing was 18 consecutive life sentences. There is some conflicting information on Cullen’s eligibility for parole — the Philadelphia Inquirer lists 2388 as when he’d first be eligible — but obviously that’s a moot point.
As for where Cullen currently resides, he is imprisoned at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, N.J. Though his killings spanned both Pennsylvania and New Jersey and he was tried and sentenced in both states, he was ultimately was locked away in New Jersey.
The Good Nurse is streaming now on Netflix.
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